Last day of the year, last fish of the year – continued winter fishing in the UK

Since I’m in England, I might as well stay around to fish some more in order to catch that elusive massive brown trout, giant rainbow trout, or enormous pike. I don’t know why but it appears that my fishing skills are more quantity-based than quality-based. After failing to produce a big quality fish in Iceland, Scotland, Lithuania, and Slovenia, I figured that I needed to re-gain some confidence with freshwater fishing again with the exception of fly-fishing freshwater in England. With completion of catching that tricky Grayling despite high volumes of other by-catch fish in there, there had to be a time to go for quality instead of quantity. So it was time to change the fishing gears and transform the mentality, targeting ability, and luck to catching a big fish of high quality. Like the Lingcod that I caught at near the end of the rockfishing day while fishing in California.

Unlike the previous day of catching hundreds of fish, I think I caught more in terms of tiny one inch fish, Roach, than anything else. I did catch two bream, another fingerling fish, but I was losing some hope in my fishing luck for the day especially after I lost a fairly big brown trout after casting and casting a fly rod for 2 hours. I had the fish hooked on for about 5-6 seconds but he popped off, leaving me behind with a face of loss. The entire day was just tough and rough as I had a few quick bites but absolutely no full-blown takers. The fish just seemed to know that there were thousands of bait fish in the harbor but at the same time, they understood and knew to avoid all fishing hooks.

My first catch of the day – a tiny one inch roach which is basically a baitfish for bigger fish such as the trout, zander, pike, etc. Even the ducks, seagulls, and cormorants were all in the action chasing the tiny fish. What’s funny is that I also got in the action but I don’t eat any of these fingerlings.

Here’s a good view of what I look like when I cast from the bank.

In what I would call a miracle after almost losing all hope for the last day of 2018, the fishing gods provided me with a gift as I finally hooked a fairly nice-sized brown trout! It took me several minutes but I was able to land the fish! After weighing it which judged it to be 6.3 pounds and taking a few photos as evidence, the fish was released with no harm. But yessss! My biggest UK brown trout yet! I don’t think I’ll ever break my 15 pound record for brown trout (which was caught in upstate NY), but it’s a start.

Finally hooked one. Me in action on fighting a big brownie. Finally!

Yesssss! In what I would call a miracle “last 2 hours, last day of the year,” this was going to be my last FISH of the YEAR! I was not GOING to lose this one!

Proof of my last fish of the year. This fish fought longer and harder than expected, probably due to eating all those baitfish to fuel its energy.

After pictures and weighing the fish, I return it to the waters to live another day in hopes that I will catch it again when it’s bigger.

After having a great day of fishing and one last good brown trout, that concludes the year of 2018. Despite not catching certain fish species particularly Atlantic Salmon (in Scotland) and Danube Salmon (in Slovenia), I cannot discount what the fishing gods have given me in terms of catching a lot of fish with some the fish being scratched off my bucket list: Perch (European), Pike (European), Zander, Brown Trout (European), lots of Rainbow Trout, Roach, Chub, Yellowfin Tuna, Pargo, Cabrilla, Dorado, Haddock, Spiny Dog Fish, Mackerel, Rockfish, Lingcod, and several others which I cannot remember.

Overall, 2018 was a great year in fishing and much more in terms of scuba diving (Spain, Iceland, France, Malta, Croatia, Greece) as well as visiting great places such as Jordan (especially the Petra World Wonder), going to the world famous El Clásico game, attending a game at the Signal Iduna Stadium (home of Borussia Dortmund), going to Wembley Stadium, gambling in Monaco, visiting the ancient Temple of Apollo and the Temple of Poseidon in Greece, going to Stonehenge, and much, much more that I cannot name it all in terms of how great of a year it was for me. I hope and pray for the same kind or more of the excitement and adventure for the year of 2019.